(1) Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a system for selective color processing and, more particularly, to a system for processing multi-band images around a targeted color of interest.
(2) Description of Related Art
Image processing is a form of signal processing for which the input is an image, and the output is either an image, or a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image. Contrast enhancement is one form of image processing which seeks to increase contrast in low contrast ranges for object detection and recognition. Histogram equalization tries to match a true image histogram to a target histogram in order to increase contrast in low contrast ranges. Histogram equalization relies on image statistics to generate histograms, which in video sequences can suffer from frame to frame histogram fluctuations. These discrepancies can be caused by large objects entering or leaving the view, or from non-linear illumination changes.
Independent component analysis (ICA) is a computational method for separating a multivariate signal into additive subcomponents by assuming that the subcomponents are non-Gaussian signals and that they are all statistically independent from each other. ICA is a case of blind signal separation, which is the separation of a set of source signals from a set of mixed signals, without the aid of information about the source signals or the mixing process.
A continuing need exists for an image processing method which attempts to separate a color source based on an input parameter, rather than performing it blindly. Additionally, it would be advantageous to have a method that applies contrast enhancement only to a range of intensities of interest while suppressing contrast in other regions, as opposed to standard histogram equalization which attempts to linearize the image histogram.